2019.2 Update: The AmEx SPG Luxury card is now rebranded as AmEx Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card, and the benefits remain the same. At the same time, the offer is raised to 100k, and the deadline is 2019.04.24.

$300 Marriott statement credit every card membership year. You can use this for eligible purchases made directly at participating Marriott hotels (including Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and SPG brands), including the room rate itself.

15 Elite Night Credits every card membership year toward Marriott elite status. (They are not free night certificates!) You will receive a maximum of 15 Elite Night credits per calendar year even if you have more than one Marriott/SPG/Ritz-Carlton credit cards.

Receive an annual free night that can be used in a Marriott hotel with a redemption level up to 50k Marriott points.

With this credit card, you can get access to Amex Offers, which often offers very good discounts at some stores. In the past we have seen offers like: Spend $15 or more and get $5 back at Walmart; Spend $75 or more and get $25 back on Amazon.com.

Up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre application fee.

Complimentary Boingo Wi-Fi on up to four devices worldwide.

No foreign transaction fee.

Refer a friend: You can earn 20,000 bonus Marriott points for every approved account you refer, up to 55,000 Marriott points per calendar year.

Disadvantages

$450 annual fee. Note that the annual fee does not count towards the minimum spending requirement (and this is true for all credit cards)!

Introduction to Marriott Points

Marriott points are the most flexible transferable points (After the merging with SPG, Marriott obtained all its airline partners).

Marriott points are stored in your Marriott account, not in your credit cards, so you won't lose your points by canceling the credit cards.

Your Marriott points will expire if you don't earn or spend any Marriott points in 24 months. As long as you earn make a purchase with the corresponding credit cards or stay in a hotel, or you redeem some points during the time frame, the point expiration date will be postponed accordingly.

Marriott points can be transferred to a lot of airlines miles (you don't have to have a Marriott related credit card to make the transfer), and the ratio is 3:1.25 (i.e. 3:1 transfer rate, plus you get 5k bonus miles for every 60k Marriott points you transfer at a time). The good options are: Alaska Airlines (AS) (Non-alliance), Japan Airlines (JL) (Oneworld), United Airlines (UA) (Star Alliance), American Airlines (AA) (Oneworld), All Nippon Airways (ANA, NH) (Star Alliance), Korean Air (KE) (SkyTeam), etc. If you use Marriott points in this way, the value is about 0.7 cents/point.

Marriott points can also be redeemed for hotel stays obviously. Here's the redemption chart: Marriott redemption chart. Generally speaking, you can get a better redemption value from lowest categories. If you use Marriott points in this way, the value is about 0.8 cents/point.

In summary, we estimate that Marriott points are worth about 0.8 cents/point.

Recommended Application Time

You can only get the sign-up bonus once in a lifetime, so be sure to apply when the historical highest offer appears.

You can try to apply for it when you have a credit history of 6 months.

Only 2 AmEx credit cards can be approved within 90 days, but this rule does not apply to charge cards. Multiple cards approved in the same day will only have one Hard Pull.

You can keep at most 5 AmEx credit cards, but this rule does not apply to charge cards.

Summary

100k bonus offer is ok but not that attractive for a $450 annual fee card. As a $450 annual fee card, the earning rate is not so good, especially comparing to the old SPG card. Subtracting the $300 Marriott annual credit, the equivalent annual fee is $150, and what you get is an up to 50k free night. Is it worth it? 50k Marriott hotels can be very good ones, you can also have enough choices even in big cities in the US. I think this free night can be easily worth at least $200.

Recommended Downgrade Options

After Applying

AmEx reconsideration backdoor number: 877-399-3083. The “real” backdoor number of Amex is well protected. Different from Chase, the representatives from this AmEx reconsideration backdoor number only have the right to help you submit requests.

Content and opinions on this site are authors/editors’ alone, not provided by any bank, credit card issuer, airline, hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. We attempt to keep the information found on this site as accurate as possible, but it is user’s liability to verify the bonus and other credit card information in the issuer's official website during the application process. If you find any information incorrect or expired, please contact us immediately. The credit card logos are trademarks of the issuers. The Amazon logos are trademarks of Amazon, Inc.

Advertiser Disclosure

Some links to credit cards and other products on this website will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site. This site does not include all credit card issuers or all available credit card offers.